New data on quarantine pests and pests of the EPPO Alert List

By browsing through the literature, the EPPO Secretariat has extracted the following new data concerning quarantine pests and pests included on the EPPO Alert List. The situation of the pest concerned is indicated in bold, using the terms of ISPM no. 8.

New records

Impatiens necrotic spot tospovirus (EPPO A2 list) is reported for the first time from New Zealand. The virus was found on Freesia refracta in Canterbury province, South Island (Anon., 2004a). Present, found in South Island.

Iris yellow spot tospovirus (EPPO Alert list) occurs in Japan. It was first detected on Alstroemeria in Chiba prefecture in 1999 (Honshu). It was later found on Eustoma russellianum in Shizuoka (Honshu) and Saga (Kyushu) prefectures (Murai, 2004). Present, first found in 1999, found in Honshu and Kyushu.

In Indonesia, Globodera rostochiensis (EPPO A2 list) was identified for the first time in the potato-growing area of Malang, East Java, in March 2003 (Indarti et al., 2004). Present, first reported in 2003, in Java.

In Italy, during a survey done from 1999 to 2002 in vineyards, Neoaliturus haematoceps (Homoptera: Cicadellidae - EU Annexes) was found near Pisa, Toscana (Mazzoni et al., 2002). Present, found in Toscana.

Black sigatoka of banana, caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis, was found for the first time in 2003 in Trinidad and Tobago. The disease has spread to several areas in Trinidad (Sangre, Grande, Princes Town, La Brea and Tabaquite). It is suspected that the disease was introduced via imports from Venezuela (Anon., 2004b). Present, found in 2003 in Trinidad.

In April 2002, a serious disease of Anthurium was noticed in a commercial plantation in Xishuang-banna, Yunnan Province, China (Ji et al., 2004). The pathogen was identified as Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. dieffenbachiae (EPPO A2 list). Present, found in 2002 in Yunnan.

Aleurocanthus spiniferus (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae – EPPO A1 list) occurs in Hubei and Jiangxi in China. Serious damage on citrus trees have been seen in these provinces as well as in Hunan and Sichuan over the last few years (Zhang et al., 2004).

In Italy, Cacyreus marshalli (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae - EPPO A2 list) is reported for the first time from Campania (Tropiano, 2002). It is recalled that this pest was first found in Lazio in 1996, and later in many other Italian regions, especially along the east and west coasts.

In Australia, Iris yellow spot tospovirus (EPPO Alert List) has recently been found on onions and leeks in Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria (per. com. with Dr R. Jones, CSIRO, 2004).

In Jordan, a study done in 1999 in different pome fruit-growing regions showed that Erwinia amylovora (EPPO A2 list) was present in the Shobak, Ajlun, El-hallabat and Jerash areas, as well as in nurseries of pome fruit trees (Al Dahmashi ; Khlaif, 2004).

In Belarus, Globodera rostochiensis (EPPO A2 list) was first detected in 1957. Surveys showed that by 2002, 318,000 sites were recorded in an area of 104,000 ha, corresponding to one sixth of all potato plantings (Ananieva, 2003).

European Union funding:
For a three-year period (2018-12-11 to 2021-12-10), EPPO has been awarded an EU grant for the further development of the EPPO code system (agreement nb: SANTE/2018/G5/EPPO/SI2.793173). The EU Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information from this project subsequently included in the EPPO Global Database.